''Overdrive'' is an arcade-style motor racing game which was written by Peter Johnson for the

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a p ...

and

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an empha ...

and released in 1984 by

Superior Software Superior Software Ltd (also known as Superior Interactive) is a video game publisher. It was one of the main publishers for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. It currently releases games for Microsoft Window ...

Gameplay

The game was probably inspired by the hugely successful

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

/ Atari arcade game ''

Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

'', one of the most popular arcade games of the era. It is also influenced by Sega's 1981 game ''

Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pr ...

''. Like those arcade games, ''Overdrive'' uses the "rear-view racer format" but there are no bends in the track. The aim of the game is to finish in the top 12 in order to qualify for the next track. There are five different tracks but as there are no bends, the only difference is the change in scenery (fields, night, snow, desert and riverside scenes) as well as a change in the grip. Points are awarded for the distance travelled as well as a bonus given at the end of each level depending on the number of computer-controlled cars that have been passed. If the player collides with another car, they explode and regenerate. This can happen an infinite number of times but it wastes time and many opponents will pass while the player slowly accelerates. It is also common for opponents to crash into the back of the player while they are still accelerating causing another explosion.

Reception

The game was hugely successful selling almost 40,000 copies across both BBC Micro and Electron versions
-> which was exceptional for that platform. It was Superior Software's biggest seller, out-selling even the individual '' Repton (computer game), Repton'' titles. It was especially popular on the

(outselling the BBC version by a ratio of more than 2:1). This is probably down to the fact that it was the only 3D scrolling racing game available for the Electron for many years (with hardware limitations discouraging many conversions) while the BBC version had competition from more sophisticated simulations such as '' Revs'' as well as the official

Atarisoft Atarisoft was a brand name used by Atari, Inc. in 1983 and 1984 to market video games the company published for home systems made by competitors. Each platform had a specific color attributed by Atarisoft for its game packages. For example, vid ...

port of ''

''.

Legacy

''Overdrive'' remained the only 3D racing game available for the Electron until 1987 when Superior released the motorbike racer '' Crazee Rider'', a game originally conceived as a follow-up to ''Overdrive''. This game did include bends showing that it would have been possible but the fact that it took so long for another such game to be released shows what a technical achievement converting ''Overdrive'' for the Electron had been. Also in 1987, ''Overdrive'' was included on the ''Superior Collection'' compilations (vol.2 on the BBC, vol.3 on the Electron), meaning it was still available until the demand for

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of ...

games dried up in the early 1990s.

References

External links

* {{Superior Software 1984 video games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron-only games Europe-exclusive video games Racing video games Superior Software games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Single-player video games